Why drive when you can pedal?

Hello, friends!
My lovely girlfriend is from the great state on South Dakota (Great Faces, Great Places!) and her family still lives there.  In July, her parents and one of her sisters visited Saint Louis for the weekend and we went sight seeing.  Of course, by sight seeing, I mean we went to a bunch of great places to eat and had our fill.  =0).

One of the things that Meg told me is that her mother won't drive in the city.  City traffic is a little bit different in Saint Louis than it is in South Dakota.  There are more cars, and my guess is that the drivers in Saint Louis are more aggressive than in South Dakota.  So, Meg drove, Meg's dad drove, and I was even able to show off my driving skills a bit (as well as my parallel parking!) while they visited. 

What does this have to do with anything?  Well, like Meg's mother, I've never been a fan of driving in the city either, but for an entirely different reason.  It's all the stopping that kills me.  I can't stand going, then stopping, the sitting in idle, watching precious ounces of fuel literally go up in smoke.  It drives me crazy. 

This morning, I drove to my small group at the Efree church.  It is 4.5 miles from my place.  Last night, I took a test run to see how long it would take me to bike there from my place.  One way, it took me about 24 minutes.  Not to bad, right?  How long did it take me this morning, with all the stopping, the going, and the fuel busting?  16 minutes... I literally only save 8 minutes by driving instead of biking.  How lame is that! 

All that has done is confirm for me that biking in CoMo is the way to go.  With all the lights and stops along the way, it only takes me a few extra minutes to bike instead of drive.  There are times when I'll need to drive, for sure, but now I know that getting to small group in the morning is not one of those times.

Here are today's stats:
Places traveled: Campus, Coldstone, back to campus, Staples, then back home.
Distance traveled: Google Maps says 8.2 miles ($.79)
Meter: 6 hours on campus ($6)

Grand Total for the day: $6.79
Grand Total so far: $49.21
Left to save: $532.41

Happy Biking!

~Adam